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Wyle Unit Serves in Vital Role for Selection of New European Space Authority Astronauts
EL SEGUNDO, California, June 3 /PRNewswire/ --
Wyle's Germany-based GmbH unit played a vital role in the recent
selection of six new European Space Authority (ESA) astronauts, the first
named since 1992.
Casey Pruett, managing director of the unit, assisted in supervising all
logistic components for organizing the implementation of two phases of
psychological and one phase of medical testing. He served as the deputy
project manager to Dr. Volker Damann, head of ESA's Crew Medical Support
Office, and was responsible for the psychological and medical components of
the ESA astronaut selection campaign.
The new astronauts are Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, Alexander Gerst
of Germany, Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Luca Parmitano of Italy, Timothy
Peake of the U.K. and Thomas Pesquet of France.
They were selected following a Europe-wide recruitment process that began
in 2008. Following thorough psychological, medical and professional screening
that started with 8,413 applicants, they are the first new recruits to join
the European Astronaut Corps since 1992 under this second-ever astronaut
selection carried out by ESA.
The screening was conducted at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne,
Germany in conjunction with space psychologists, European Space Agency
Astronaut and ESA Human Resources involvement. The medical phase was
conducted jointly at the German Aerospace Center Institute for Aerospace
Medicine in Cologne, Germany and Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology
in Toulouse, France.
Wyle GmbH, founded in 2000 and located in Cologne, Germany, provides
biomedical engineering, space medicine, flight nurse, psychology, nutrition,
radiation, medical informatics and technology, fitness and rehabilitation for
space flight, physiotherapy, medical education maintenance, project
management and consulting support services to aerospace, government and
medical research customers.
Wyle, a privately held company, is a leading provider of high tech
aerospace engineering and information technology services to the federal
government on long-term outsourcing contracts. The company also provides life
sciences services for NASA's astronaut corps as well as mission critical
support services and space simulation; test and evaluation of aircraft,
weapon systems, networks, and other government assets; and other engineering
services to the aerospace, defense, nuclear power, communications and
transportation industries.
Contact:
Dan Reeder
+1-310-563-6834
Ref.: NR/09-16
